Creature From The Black Lagoon Pinball By Bally 1992
I bought creature because I fell in love with the game from the first time I saw it at the arcade. It has a drive in movie theme. I am a big fan of the drive in movie lifestyle. Check out the rest of my homepage for evidence of that fact. Above you can see the DMD display. The plastic surrounding it makes it look like a drive in theater. The drive in marquee on the right is for the Starlite Drive In. You can also make out several classic 50's cars pulled in to watch the movie. The far left of the plastic has a drive in speaker screened over the speaker hole.
The backglass features the artwork from the original movie one sheet poster which is a highly sought after collectable in its own right today. The lights behind the glass work nicely with the game. One of the funniest things the game does is the tilt warning. When you nudge it too hard the girls upper torso flashes thanks to two well placed lamps. The audio then plays a track of the girl saying, "Dont touch me there!" .
Here you can see the coin door which again has the drive in movie theme. A speaker, hot dog, popcorn and fuzzy dice all beckon you to step up and give it a try. The machine also lets you know that the game is in 3-D! It would have been so cool to have had a P2K Creature. With real 3-d glasses and the monitor it would have been a trip!
This is a ball's eye view of the KISS lane shot. The plastic above this lane is usually broken but luckily replacements are available. The objective of the game is to light the letter F-I-L-M to start multi ball. Then you must search all the areas to find the girl, then rescue the girl, and finally shoot for the jackpot and super-jackpot shots. The KISS lane awards one letter when you manage to steal a KISS from your date. This scene is very cute and will bring back memories of most folks first kissing experience
Here above the flippers you can keep track of which letters in F-I-L-M you have lit. Lighting them in order by the way will score you an extra 8 million points. Just above this area you can see the hologram swamp from which the creature rises to swat at the player during multi-ball. The first time I saw this in the arcade I freaked out. I really thought I was seeing things. It also kept me coming back to drop more quarters!
The rollover lanes at the top spell the "L" in F-I-L-M and increase the bonus X. Watch closely when you complete all the letters to buy a ticket and as the car drives past the ticket booth a cow can be seen in the lower right hand corner on the DMD. You can also see the famous whirl-pool shot. You can only shoot at this during multi-ball and then you do so at you own peril. It does increase the payout but your chance of draining the two ball multi-ball is very high. In fact, it is pretty high anyway. Actually, creature has one of the hardest multi-balls on a WMS pinball IMHO.
At the top right hand corner you can also see the shot that will give you the M in F-I-L-M which is the slide shot. This is also where you shoot to start the video mode which consists of you punching out a peeping Tom to defend the honor of your date. If you hold down both flipper after the knockout punch his head will fly off his body. YUCK!
This is a shot of the upper playfield. The ramp shot that circles around has tiny bulbs that form a rope light type of effect that are really cool when lit. The hole in the middle is the snack bar which gives a random award when lit. Hitting the two target on each side awards the letter I in F-I-L-M and lights the snack bar shot. The plastic above this shot is often broken as well and like the KISS plastic replacements are available.
